More registered investment advisory firms are popping up every year to meet client demand to the tune of more than $128 trillion in assets managed by companies in the channel. And they roll out announcements of new M&A deals and financial advisor recruiting moves every day.
However, these particular firms stand out from peers with 10-year growth rates registering at percentages in the tens and even hundreds of thousands.
The slideshow below displays the top 25 retail investor-focused registered investment advisory firms ranked by their growth in assets under management over the past decade, according to figures provided to Financial Planning by ISS Market Intelligence from its MarketPro Powered By Discovery Data solution. As RIAs recruit and acquire advisory practice, they must ensure the incoming advisors fit into their new homes.
"People need to meet each other. Our average firm that we are acquiring will meet a couple dozen people at Robertson Stephens before they join," said Raj Bhattacharyya, CEO of the San Francisco-based firm, which has completed at least 20 M&A deals on its way to $6.5 billion in AUM across 23 teams. "What people often tend to forget is the acquisition closes and then you're all part of the same firm."
And that often poses challenges in a variety of areas — especially as RIAs seek out additional ways besides M&A to expand through new client relationships and managing more assets on behalf of their existing customers.
"There is a lot of talk about how to drive organic growth in the industry," said Penny Phillips, president of New York-based RIA firm Journey Strategic Wealth, which has five offices that manage $3.7 billion in AUM three years after its launch. "Personally, I believe that the most sustainable organic growth strategy — and the one strategy that truly honors the independence and uniqueness of each advisor in the industry — is one that enables the advisor to spend more time building brand awareness and obtaining referrals from client and [center-of-influence] advocates."
As with any list ranking RIAs, the one below of the firms with the fastest-growing AUM comes with some caveats and specific methodology. Firms based outside the U.S. or those that weren't operating a decade ago aren't included. And, to be sure, firms that had the fewest assets can always accelerate their AUM at a higher percentage than RIAs that already managed billions of dollars 10 years ago.
Scroll down the slideshow below to see the 25 fastest-growing RIAs over the past decade based on AUM. To see analysis of the latest industry snapshot for the RIA channel, click here. For a look at the RIAs that expanded the most quickly without making any M&A deals, follow this link.
The data for the below rankings comes entirely via ISS Market Intelligence from its MarketPro Powered By Discovery Data solution, which gathered the figures through Form ADV filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After screening the filings to reflect companies that fit the "Best Retail" filter in terms of the mix of clients, assets and other characteristics reflecting a focus on retail wealth management services, the company compared each companies' number of assets under management in 2014 and 2023. Excluding RIAs that launched after 2014, the following companies displayed the biggest growth in the metric during the past decade.
